GRA - I’m Cis therefore I’m confused…
The Gender Recognition Act 2004
The Gender Recognition Act (GRA) was introduced to overcome the inequalities that Trans Men and Trans Women faced under the law.
The Act allows Transsexual people to apply for full legal recognition in their acquired gender. If the individual’s application is successful the Law regards the individual as being of their acquired gender for all purposes.
The GRA gives Trans Men and Trans Women the opportunity to apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) from the Gender Recognition Panel (GRP). A full certificate (which confers full legal rights in the acquired gender) will be issued if the individual can provide the following evidence:
- they are at least 18 years of age at the time of the application, and
- they have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria (sometimes known as transsexualism or gender identity disorder), and
- they have lived in their acquired gender for at least two years, and
- they intend to live in their acquired gender until death, and
- they are not married or in a civil partnership.
- There is no requirement for the applicant to have undergone surgery
Trans Men and Trans Women who are married will only be issued with an interim certificate which is valid for 6 months. An interim GRC will be accepted by the courts as an additional ground for divorce, which when completed, will lead to the issuing of a full GRC.
This was given reply to my asking what GRA was on Corvid Dreams. It’s about half way down the page and I’m still confused and still looking for answers that I suspect just aren’t there. The GRA runs to seven pages and is all in legalese and doesn’t help clarify much either.
So, if you’re out shopping and the person working in the shop is a trans person, does it matter? Not in the least. Does it matter if your neighbour is a trans person? The parent of your kids best friend? One of your kids? Not in the least. Does it matter if your gynaecologist is a trans person? Well, there I’m on frowning ground and able to say that it depends on you. If you’d insist on a female doctor then it might matter but only in the same way as it would matter if it was a man - as it was for me last summer and I walked out when it became clear he understood none of my points of view and he happily defered me back to my (female) family doctor, I think he was glad to see the back of me really. But I’m digressing.
Let’s say you’re working at a DV shelter/Women’s refuge and someone calls to beg for help, what do you do? Do you go into anti-trans mode and ask her to prove she’s actually fully female and nothing else? Do you demand a dna test to prove birth assigned sex? Do you demand a full medical history? I don’t see that happening, do you? But if that women turns out to be gender reassigned but not surgically, what happens then? How much does it matter? Where is the line to be drawn? What criteria do we put in place for this situation or do we just stick our heads in the sand and say TransWomen don’t sufffer abuse? Which, by the way is complete and utter rubbish, anyone can be abused, beaten or killed and it’s the same thing. But is happens to women more than anyone else and women have set up safe spaces for themselves and there aren’t enough spaces for everyone who needs it as it is and those that exist are under threat.
I wish we didn’t need any safe spaces for anyone, I wish that people would just not hurt each other. But while the power in society is unbalanced that just isn’t going to happen. It comes down to patriarchal control of money in the end - I was looking for a contact for a refuge somewhere for someone and we were shocked to discover that the contact line is only staffed three days a week for three hours. Nine hours a week is all there is for that city. There just isn’t enough coverage as it is and to use valuable time and energy arguing about a tiny fraction of the population is absurd, sorry but there it is. I don’t want to dismiss trans experiences but it’s so far out of my understanding that I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand it even though the issues keep coming up in various places and making me think.
*Disclaimer - I have never worked in that environment and although I am aware that certain protocols will be in place to protect the Refuge and the women inside, I don’t actually know what they are - Please do come and tell me more, enlighten me and help me understand.*
What do you do for an encore?
Seriously - that missed out the interesting bit
Now there are two ways of looking at this:
1) The government thinks that some people have a mental illnes which makes them think they are a ‘gender’ or:
2) The government really BELIEVES there is such a thing as ‘gender’ and has decided to recognise it in law.
If the answer is 1) that is bizarre. However if the answer is 2) that is also bizarre.
Conclusion: it’s bizarre………………………
Comment by polly styrene — August 26, 2008 @ 9:57 pm
Hi Polly!
I don’t do encores. To me an encore implies the performance is over and I ain’t done yet.
Good to see you drop in though.
Comment by SharkBait — August 26, 2008 @ 10:04 pm